Orlando's 'Creative Village' hinges on grant money

DEVELOPER SEEKS UP TO $70 MILLION

A key date comes today for Orlando's "Creative Village," the urban mix of high-tech businesses, students and residents that so far remains in the dream stage.

Today is the preliminary deadline for the development team to apply for the federal funding needed to move forward with the city's plan to demolish Amway Arena and the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center and turn the land into a new neighborhood. Without the grant money, the project could be delayed before it even gets off the ground.

"It's an extremely cumbersome grant process," said Brooke Bonnett, the city's deputy economic-development director. "We literally have a team of 20 people working on it."

Most of the people on that team are working for Creative Village Development LLC, the company selected two months ago by the City Council to remake the 68 acres of downtown property just west of Interstate 4. It's a partnership between a company led by Orlando developer Craig Ustler and a community-development subsidiary of Bank of America.

It's a risk for the developer. Though the city is lending staff time, Creative Village Development is fronting the money — estimated at several hundred thousand dollars — to go after the grants.

The company will target several potential grants and is searching for others. But this first one is the biggest and most crucial.

The developer, in the city's name, is applying for as much as $70 million from TIGER II, a federal program meant to build transportation infrastructure and create jobs. That's more than 10 percent of the total $600 million expected to be handed out across the nation.

In Orlando, the money would be used to extend the Lynx Central Station's bus and rail lines to the property; rebuild and realign roads that run through it; and add transportation features such as bus rapid-transit stops and paths for pedestrians and bicycles.

The U.S. Department of Transportation requires local matching funds from its grant recipients, so developers are also seeking money from Lynx, Orlando Utilities Commission,the University of Central Florida and Valencia Community College.

The recession has made it tough for developers to obtain traditional financing. City officials and Creative Village Development hope that government grants will cover enough of the infrastructure costs to make their plan for the Creative Village economically feasible.

The land, now mostly a sea of parking lots for Amway Arena, would feature digital-media schools and companies; 1,500 units of mixed-income housing, including student housing, flats, town homes and brownstones; as much as 500,000 square feet of educational space; 1 million square feet of office and "creative" space; 150,000 square feet of commercial space; and 150 to 200 hotel rooms.

It would be dotted with public art, parks and video screens.

Today, the developers must submit a simple pre-application. A much more detailed application — something of a sales pitch — is due Aug. 23, and they'll likely be told by the end of the year whether any money is coming.

The project has some things in its favor. It would tie in with the plannedSunRailcommuter train, and no Florida projects received TIGER, or Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, funding last year. Even so, there's no guarantee.

"We feel very good about our chances, but there's no way to know," Ustler said. "It's not a standard transportation project. It's not a bridge or an interchange — it's a quality-of-life transportation project."

If the grant doesn't come through, the project isn't dead. The developer will apply for other grants and will try again for TIGER funding next year. The city has given Creative Village Development five years to line up grants or other financing, although it hopes to get the money in as little as two years.

Construction won't be finished for much longer, perhaps as long as 15 years. The project's success is important to taxpayers because the city has already borrowed $90 million against the land to help finance the construction of a new arena and performing-arts center and renovated Citrus Bowl.

"A lot of this is speculative," Commissioner Daisy Lynum said. "But we hope that it is successful, because the city needs to make money on this property. Our city borrowed a bunch of money, and now we need to make a bunch of money."